Windows Network Traffic Test

This is an internal test that monitors the incoming and outgoing traffic through a Microsoft Windows server.

Target of the test : A Windows host

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every network interface of the target host.

Configurable parameters for the test
  1. Test period - How often should the test be executed
  2. Host - The host for which the test is to be configured
  3. exclude - Provide the network interfaces to be excluded from monitoring, as a comma-separated list.
  4. IS FULL DUPLEX - By default, this flag is set to Yes, indicating that the incoming and outgoing data traffic is handled in full duplex mode. This means that the network interfaces are sending and receiving data at the same time. If the data traffic in your environment is handled in half-duplex mode, set this flag to No. This means that the network interfaces are not sending and receiving data at the same time; in essence, it is a one-way conversation. In this case, the test halves the value of the Incoming traffic and Outgoing traffic measures.
  5. Report By Connection ID - By default, this flag is set to No. This implies that by default, the network interfaces are identified using their names. On the other hand, if you want the test to identify the network interfaces using their connection IDs instead of the names, then set this flag to Yes. Then, the test will identify the network interfaces using the connection IDs and report metrics for every connection ID.

  6. Show Top - By default, this parameter is set to 10 indicating that the test will report detailed diagnosis only for the top -10 applications that used maximum bandwidth while transferring data over every network interface. Using the information displayed by the detailed diagnosis, you can easily find out the non-critical applications (if any) that are using more bandwidth than the business critical applications and take necessary steps to alleviate the issue. However, you can increase or decrease the value of the Show Top parameter depending upon the level of visibility you require.

  7. EVENT CAPTURE INTERVAL IN SECS - This parameter is applicable only when the Trace flag is set to Yes. By default, the value of this parameter is set to 10 seconds. This setting ensures that the test will only capture the incoming/outgoing traffic during the last 10 seconds of the specified measurement period. Administrators can override the default value if they wish to capture the incoming/outgoing traffic for a longer duration.

  8. TRACE - By default, this flag is set to No, indicating that detailed diagnosis is not reported by default for the Incoming Traffic and Outgoing Traffic measures of this test. However, administrators can set this flag to Yes, if detailed diagnosis should be reported for this test.

  9. Detailed Diagnosis - To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

    • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
    • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Incoming traffic

Indicates the rate at which data (including framing characters) is received on a network interface.

Mbps

An abnormally high rate of incoming traffic may require additional analysis.

For a managed Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI component, the Windows Network Traffic test reports metrics for an additional Total descriptor. For this descriptor, this measure will reveal the rate of incoming data traffic on all network interfaces supported by the Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI host.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure reveals the name of the application, Pid, remote address, and the rate at which the bits are transferred during incoming and outgoing data transmission through a network interface.

Outgoing traffic

Represents the rate at which data (including framing characters) is sent on a network interface.

Mbps

An abnormally high rate of outgoing traffic may require additional analysis.

For a managed Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI component, the Windows Network Traffic test reports metrics for an additional Total descriptor. For this descriptor, this measure will reveal the rate of outgoing data traffic on all network interfaces supported by the Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI host.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure reveals the name of the application, Pid, remote address, and the rate at which the bits are transferred during incoming and outgoing data transmission through a network interface.

Max bandwidth

An estimate of the capacity of a network interface.

Mbps

This measure will not be reported for the ‘Total’ descriptor of this test.

Bandwidth usage

Indicates the percentage of bandwidth used by this network interface.

Percent

By comparing the bandwidth usage with the maximum bandwidth of an interface, an administrator can determine times when the network interface is overloaded or is being a performance bottleneck.

For a managed Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI component, the Windows Network Traffic test reports metrics for an additional Total descriptor. For this descriptor, this measure will reveal the total bandwidth used by the target Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI host across all its network interfaces.

Output queue length

Indicates the length of the output packet queue (in packets).

Number

If this is longer than 2, delays are being experienced and the bottleneck should be found and eliminated if possible.

For a managed Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI component, the Windows Network Traffic test reports metrics for an additional Total descriptor. For this descriptor, this measure will reveal the total number of packets in the output queues of all network interfaces supported by the Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI host.

Outbound packet errors

The number of outbound packets that could not be transmitted because of errors.

Number

Ideally, number of outbound errors should be 0.

For a managed Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI component, the Windows Network Traffic test reports metrics for an additional Total descriptor. For this descriptor, this measure will reveal the total number of outbound packets with errors on all network interfaces supported by the Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI host.

Inbound packet errors

The number of inbound packets that contained errors preventing them from being deliverable to a higher-layer protocol.

Number

Ideally, number of inbound errors should be 0.

For a managed Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI component, the Windows Network Traffic test reports metrics for an additional Total descriptor. For this descriptor, this measure will reveal the total number of inbound packets with errors on all network interfaces supported by the Hyper-V or Hyper-V VDI host.

Note:

If this test is not reporting measures for a server, make sure that you have enabled the SNMP service for that server.